Connotative and Denotative Meanings

• Literal vs. suggestiveExample the word cheap / inexpensive

Wordiness and Concisenesseffective writing is concise, wordiness

decreases clarity of expression

wordiness

• Incorrect: The medical exam that he gave me was entirely complete.

• Correct: The medical exam that he gave me was complete

Sentence Structure

• Parallelism is used to express matching ideas. It refers to the grammatical balance od a series of any of the following: The squirrel ran along the fence, and up the tree,

and into his burrow with a mouthful of acorns. You will need a notebook, pencil, and dictionary

for the test. The farmer plowed, planted, and harvested his

corn in record time.

Misplaced and dangling modifiers

• A misplaced modifier is one that is in the wrong place in the sentence. Mom made me eat the spinach instead of my brother.

( Mom made me, instead of my brother, eat the spinach.)

Modifiers like like only, nearly, and almost should be placed next to the word they modify and not in front of some other words, especially verbs. (incorrect - She served hamburger to the men on paper plates. Correct - She served hamburgers on paper plates to the men.

Fragments

• A group of words pretending to be a sentence

Incorrect - Traffic was stalled for ten miles on the freeway. Because repairs were being made on potholes. Correct - Traffic was stalled for ten miles on

the freeway because repairs were being made on potholes.

Run-On Sentences

• It is not necessarily a long sentence: in fact a run-on may be two short sentences without any correct mark of punctuation separating them.

• Dry ice does not melt it evaporates.

Pronouns

• Nominative case

I, he, she, we, they,who

• Objective Me,him,her,us,them,whom

Adjectives

• Words that modify nouns or pronouns by defining, describing, limited, or qualifying those nouns or pronouns

• The old man’s speech was eloquent

• Please be careful

• This is real amethyst

Adverbs

• Adverbs are words the modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs and that express such ideas as time, place, manner, cause, and degree. Mr. Brown speaks eloquently. Please drive carefully This is really important

Punctuation

• Commas - should be placed according to standard roles of punctuation for purpose, clarity, and effect. In Series

• The long, dark passageway

• The old, gray, crumpled hat

• An apple, a pear,a fig, and a banana

• She lowered the shade, closed the curtain, turned off the light, and went to bed.